Musings on Events in U.S. Immigration Court, Immigration Law, Sports, and Other Random Topics by Retired United States Immigration Judge (Arlington, Virginia) and former Chairman of the Board of Immigration Appeals Paul Wickham Schmidt. To see my complete professional bio, just click on the link below.

NPR: Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested more than 400 people in an operation targeting undocumented parents and guardians who allegedly paid smugglers to bring their children to the U.S., putting them in grave danger. An ICE spokesman tells NPR the domestic phase of its Human Smuggling Disruption Initiative concluded on Friday. He said the “surge initiative” will now shift its focus to the transnational smuggling organizations that bring the children to the U.S.-Mexico border.

ImmProf: The Trump administration announced that it was ending the CAM (Central American Minors) Parole Program, which had allowed certain children in Central America to enter the United States and be reunited with their legally residing parents.

NPR: Florida’s lawmakers added a catch, making it a crime to file a workers’ comp claim using false identification. Since then, insurers have avoided paying for injured immigrant workers’ lost wages and medical care by repeatedly turning them in to the state…What’s quietly been happening to workers in Florida, unnoticed even by immigrant advocates, could be a harbinger of the future as immigration enforcement expands under President Trump.

WRC: USCIS posted updated quarterly statistics on the CFI caseload and grant rate. The rate of positive credible fear has declined in FY 2017. While of course many factors can influence the rate, and overall the total number of CFIs declined as well, it’s worth noting the decline in positive credible fear in light of the new credible fear lesson plan issued in February and given that a decline in the fear found rate also occurred in 2014 when a revised lesson plan was issued.